Kaleidoscope

With the recent hype surrounding the announcement of the 2012 continuation of Nolan’s batman movies, I was reminded of the amazing marketing campaign that promoted one of the highest-grossing movies ever – the Dark Knight.

This was a viral campaign conducted by 42 Entertainment which heavily promoted the movie the year leading up to the release.

The marketing for this movie was…. Insane!! I was never a big comic/superhero fan, but even I heard word of mouth about this when it was happening. The marketing budget for this movie was a whopping $75 million dollars. This gave 42 Entertainment plenty of $$ to spend – eventually leading up to one of the most interactive movie marketing campaigns ever. There were literally hoards of people marching in several cities – supporting a fictional politician “Harvey Dent”, while thousands of others painted their faces and joined in to the Joker’s Army. 42 Entertainment along with Warner Brothers was able to bring a taste of Batman’s fictional world, the city of Gotham, to the real world.

This video pretty much sums the entire process:

Yeah, people were given CAKES! from local Bakeries!!! WITH CELL PHONES! from the Joker himself!!

The cake report: http://www.whysoserious.com/reports/cake.

That’s pretty crazy stuff, but it obviously paid off! The Dark Knight dominated the box-office for weeks on end, with the highest pre-sales ever recorded.

If you’re still interested in the campaign, this website gives a detailed and thorough account of the events leading up to the movie.

http://www.moviemarketingmadness.com/blog/2008/07/movie-marketing-madness-the-dark-knight/

I wonder if Warner Brothers/42 Entertainment will attempt a Part II of their infamous viral marketing campaign for the next movie, the Dark Knight rises (2012). If so, comic-book/superhero fans all over the world will undoubtedly be keeping a close eye to the action surrounding the release of the newest batman movie.

Until then,

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